On illegal activities in the California state beverage container deposit system

Abstract

One of the barriers to the effective use of a deposit-refund system is the burden borne by the system management actor, such as the government. The burden can be considered to increase if the system management actor collects unredeemed deposits which the system occasions. The deposit system of the state of California in the United States adopts this collection scheme to manage beverage containers. This article considers the burden of the system management actor by understanding the actual situation in the California beverage container deposit system. A variety of elements contributing to the burden was observed; however, the collection of unredeemed deposits is related to the suppression of illegal activities in the deposit system. Therefore, this article also considers the burden from the viewpoint of illegal activities and crackdowns. My conclusions with regard to the system management actor’s collection of unredeemed deposits are as follows: the collection requires that the right information regarding sales and returns be collected and the system management actor needs to verify whether the information is correct, e.g., by examining the business records of system participants.